The Competition Authority has been asked to examine whether Eircell should be allowed locate mobile phone antennae at 260 Garda sites around the State. The authority is to study whether any issues of competition will arise if Eircell goes ahead.

The authority will also consider the implications of giving another operator the go-ahead to locate antennae on Garda masts and what would happen if some operators were allowed to use the sites, while others were refused.

Esat Digifone, the second mobile phone operator, already has agreements with the Garda to erect antennae on its sites. At present it locates on about 200 sites.

Eircell says it has been seeking to conclude a deal on the sites for over a year. Of the 260 sites in its proposal, 223 are included in the Digifone agreement with the Garda.

However, it is not an exclusive agreement, although Eircell claimed that the previous government had "done an exclusive deal" with Esat Digifone on the sites.

The Eircell proposal has been referred to the authority by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, following consideration of it by Government over a week ago.

Eircell chief executive Mr Stephen Brewer said he had not asked for the Competition Authority to review the matter. He said Eircell had been reluctant to follow a legal route because "we felt the Department of Justice, the OPW, the Garda and Telecom Eireann [Eircell's owner] would see the common sense in having a single structure" in an area.

Mr Brewer said he had been trying to do a deal with the Garda for 15 months. It would involve £8 million investment in infrastructure and £1 million a year in rental income for the Garda, he said.

Mr Brewer said Eircell had met all the Ministers involved, (the deal would have to be signed off by several different Government departments) but "nobody could say `let's do it' ". He said Eircell believed from the beginning that sharing sites was the correct approach. "Right from the start we said we would share with the Garda and the two other operators," he said.

However, Esat Digifone chief executive Mr Barry Maloney said Digifone was the second mobile operator and 70 per cent of its infrastructure was on other people's sites. "We are not in a position to share any of our sites, most of them are leased," he said, "whereas Eircell and Telecom own most of theirs". Mr Maloney said Digifone had been allowed share fewer than five of Eircell's sites. "It is really a matter for Eircell and the Garda," he said. His company did not have any exclusive agreement regarding the Garda sites, nor had Digifone approached anyone on the matter.

A third mobile operator, Meteor, is due to build out infrastructure shortly. A Meteor spokeswoman said Meteor had looked at several Garda sites, but had not approached either Ms Harney or the Competition Authority. Interested parties have been asked to make submissions to the authority by July 28th, and it will present a report to Ms Harney by the end of August.